If Messiaen’s writings, dating back to 1942, have so far not found the distribution they deserve, it is probably because of the disarmingly unsystematic approach to a subject that is presented in a very personal and brilliant way. Some truly enlightening observations on various aspects of rhythm, melody, harmony, form, and one’s own compositional technique have gone beyond any need to motivate their basic choices. It is the artist’s language, not the theorist’s, which is not easily understood in a period that searches more for explanations than illumination. In "thinking about today’s music" in 1966, let us consider the opposite attitude of the early Boulez, Messiaen’s pupil: the concerns of justifying the compositional criteria for their work—if not of finding the same guidelines—are primary. In Messiaen, this does not mean an absence of critical analysis on the choices of his language. However, it is important to note that he believed a composer's critical apparatus to be basically a question of a personal nature, which does not require justification in the public arena, at least by the artist himself, seeing as it relates to one’s own subjectivity.

Musicians and Inner Journeys

Despite the steady production of new means and offerings made available at an ever increasing rate by technology and culture, it is questionable whether the concept of musical expression as a manifestation of the path to inner perfection that absorbs the artist throughout his training, is still current. This concept is not only a legacy of Western civilization but of basically all cultures and eras. If this discourse can be applied to performers (interpreters), whose professional activity requires an ever more frenetic pace, all the more reason that it relates to composers (creators) who need time and a suitable environment so as to develop freely a personal aesthetic journey and its own expressive language. Convinced of this, the artist must consider his most important responsibility to be that of organizing his work in such a way that the development of the complete idea is not sacrificed. Conversely, we are witnessing more and more often the distressing spectacle of musicians who are willing to sell their inner freedom, rather than giving up the minimal, nonetheless ephemeral recognition.